Rapid deposition of biaxially-textured CeO2 buffer layers on polycrystalline nickel alloy for superconducting tapes by ion assisted pulsed laser deposition

The long deposition time of sharply textured buffer layer was the main obstacle for the ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD) process to go to large scale fabrication of superconducting tapes. This paper shows that this obstacle can be overcome. (002)-oriented, sharply-textured CeO2 buffer layers with (111) phi-scan full width of half maximum (FWHM) of 10 degrees were deposited by ion beam assisted pulsed laser deposition (PLD) on polycrystalline Hastelloy C in 10 min. The deposition rate was about 3 nm/s. CeO2 film surface was smooth and free of cracks compared with film by inclined substrate deposition (ISD). The IBAD was carried out at small ion-to-atom ratio values, which resulted in CeO2 (200) plane aligned along the incident plane of the ion beam. The J(c) of Y1Ba2Cu3O7-delta (YBCO) film deposited on the buffer layer was 7.3 x 10(5) A/cm(2). (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.